To be fair, they’re really only saying they’ll do that if Hillary gets the nomination without winning a majority of pledged delegates. If Hillary were to (somehow) still win the popular vote and the majority of pledged delegates, Obama supporters – disappointed though they might be – would still perceive her nomination as fairly won and would support her. We want the nominee to be the person who won the popular vote, that’s all.
There’s a decent argument that a lot of Obama supporters support only him, and are not politically interested beyond that at this point. If they lost their guy to political maneuvering, or even if they lost their guy at all, I think it’s reasonable to expect that they won’t claim the door prize at the same rate that staunch democrats will.
Obama generates enthusiasm among otherwise politically apathetic people.
Won the popular vote- but not counting FLA or Wis, eh? :dubious:
Look, either we play by the rules, or we don’t. If the rules say the Superdelgates get to vote how they wish, then no whining if they do. If the rules say Fla and Wis don;t get their votes counted then they don’t.
But the Dems would be stupid to not count them, and we’ll get to see if Obama can rise above politics to make sure there’s a Dem in the White House.
Yeah, I know dudes say that the Fla state legislature knew what they were doing when they defied the Dems and moved their primary up. Yes, indeed they did. The state is slightly Democratic in registration, but the GOP has an edge in both Houses there. The GOP knew exactly what they were doing- try to make the Dems not count Fla. So if the Dems spurn FLA, a precious few Dem voters will feel slighted, and that’s all it takes to get the 4th Largest states Electors into the hands of the GOP.
Psst – it’s Florida and Michigan that don’t count.
Right. :smack:
DrDeth counting both MI and FL Obama still leads the popular vote by over 300,000 votes! So :dubious: to you!
And as I have linked to before, the Democrats in the FL House and Senate also voted for the primary move by an overwhelming majority and refused to work with the DNC to come up any alternative plan. The claim that this was Republican disenfranchisement is just specious.
I do agree with you that the superdelgates should vote what they believe is in the party’s best interest. It is hard to imagine how any superdelegate, no matter how much they owe the Clintons or admire her or honestly believe that she would be the best President if elected, would believe that voting for HRC would be that at this point though. The popular vote and the demographics of who is coming out with what vigor are vital parts of that analysis. Giving the impression of now smoke-free backrooms subverting the will of the people in return for old favors is also part of that analysis.
BTW, FL and MI will have delegations seated … as was originally expected once a nominee is settled upon and the other one drops then the winning nominee will graciously request the seating of those delegations who will then support the Party nominee. Their delegates couldn’t matter however; they wouldn’t be seated before it was settled already.
Nice cite 
, but that’s a razor thin edge, 300K is pretty small compared to 21million votes. About 1%.
Michigan and Florida should have been counted. That’s a different argument than saying they should count now. To me, voters are still disenfranchised if you tell them not to bother then play “gotcha.” Ha ha, it would have counted all along. What, you didn’t vote? Well, that’s too bad for you, isn’t it? Nobody who understands the first thing about democracy can seriously say that such a vote is a real vote. You might as well have a secret election.
Superdelegates can certainly vote however they want. However, overturning the popular vote would certainly do damage to the party. As it is, the whole debacle has left people scratching their heads about the very fact that some delegates are “super.” The Democratic Party’s attempts to just say, oh, there’s pledged delegates and unpledged delegates, non are super, ha ha, hasn’t fooled anyone. It’s completely stupid to have an elitist core of “super” members with extra voting power. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand the rules as they are written. It just means I think the rules are stupid, as do millions upon millions of other Democrats who will be understandably pissed if the party elite get to pick the next candidate. That would bode very poorly for the future of the party. But, by all means super-special-delegates. Vote you conscience, and damn the consequences!
Here’s an awesome spectacle from Talking Points Memo- some douchebag Republican representative from Georgia is on MSNBC suggesting that Obama’s patriotism is in question because he doesn’t wear a lapel pin. Of course, while he’s saying this, he’s not wearing one either. Douchebag Republicans are not, of course, able to comprehend logic, reason or their own hypocrisy.
IRS Probes Church Over Obama Speech
More here:
The odd details of the IRS’s latest church investigation
All the same ones that Clinton has been using… except they’ll get blamed for starting all the mudslinging.
They will have an orange alert everyday for 3 months coming up to the election. They will invent a red alert and shocking pink alert which they will use daily. Americans are too stupid to see their own manipulation.
Not been paying attention to much pundits lately, have we? :dubious:
Assuming you mean that the Dems are getting their due blame for these tactics, I think you understate the media’s ability to forget past and root for their candidate.
Who brought up Willie Horton first against Dukakis?
George H. W. Bush. Why, who did you think it was?
(If you say Al Gore, you’re illustrating a level of ignorance that suggests you’re paying too much attention to right wing websites and talk radio. Al Gore may have criticized the Massachusetts furlough plan, but he never mentioned Willie Horton.)
Lee Atwater.
Ah, should have known that Karl Rove, Sr. was behind it. 
Give him credit for repenting literally on his deathbed, at least.
Staring into the gates of Hell can do that to a person.